Extreme Speech and Democracy

by Ivan Hare, James Weinstein

Overview

Commitment to free speech is a fundamental precept of all liberal democracies. However, democracies can differ significantly when addressing the constitutionality of laws regulating certain kinds of speech. In the United States, for instance, the commitment to free speech under the First Amendment has been held by the Supreme Court to protect the public expression of the most noxious racist ideology and hence to render unconstitutional even narrow restrictions on hate speech. In contrast, governments have been accorded considerable leeway to restrict racist and other extreme expression in almost every other democracy, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and other European countries. This book considers the legal responses of various liberal democracies towards hate speech and other forms of extreme expression, and examines the following questions:

What accounts for the marked differences in attitude towards the constitutionality of hate speech regulation?
Does hate speech regulation violate the core free speech principle constitutive of democracy?
Has the traditional US position on extreme expression justifiably not found favor elsewhere?
Do values such as the commitment to equality or dignity legitimately override the right to free speech in some circumstances?

With contributions from experts in a range of disciplines, this book offers an in-depth examination of the tensions that arise between democracy's promises.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199548781
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	05/17/2009
Pages:	500
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

Ivan Hare is a Barrister at Blackstone Chambers and a former Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

James Weinstein is the Amelia D. Lewis Professor of Constitutional Law at Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

Contributors:
Eric Barendt
David Bodney
Tufyal Choudhury
Ian Cram
David Edgar
Carolyn Evans
John Finnis
David Fraser
Dieter Grimm
Ivan Hare
Eric Heinze
Ian Leigh
Jose Liht
Maleiha Malik
Dominic McGoldrick
Robert Post
Amnon Reichman
Jacob Rowbottom
Sara Savage
Wayne Sumner
Patrick Weil
James Weinstein
Michael Whine
David Williams

Table of Contents

Foreword by Ronald Dworkin
General Introduction: Free Speech, Democracy, and the Suppression of Extreme Speech Past and Present, James Weinstein and Ivan Hare
Part I: Introduction and Background
1. Freedom of Speech in a Globalized World, Dieter Grimm
2. Extreme Speech, Public Order, and Democracy: Lessons from The Masses, James Weinstein
3. Extreme Speech under International and Regional Human Rights Standards, Ivan Hare
4. An Overview of American Free Speech Doctrine and its Application to Extreme Speech, James Weinstein
5. Hate Speech in the United Kingdom: An Historical Overview, Sir David Williams QC
6. Extreme Speech and Liberalism, Maleiha Malik
Part II: Hate Speech
7. Hate Speech, Robert Post
8. Autonomy and Hate Speech, C. Edwin Baker
9. Hate Speech, Public Discourse, and the First Amendment, Stephen J. Heyman
10. Wild-West Cowboys versus Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Some Problems in Comparative Approaches to Hate Speech, Eric Heinze
11. Incitement and the Regulation of Hate Speech in Canada: A Philosophical Analysis, L.W. Sumner
12. Hate Speech, Extreme Speech, and Collective Defamation in French Law, Pascal Mbongo
13. Towards Improved Law and Policy on 'Hate Speech'- The 'Clear and Present Danger' Test in Hungary, Peter Molnar
14. Cumulative Jurisprudence and Hate Speech: Sexual Orientation and Analogies to Disability, Age, and Obesity, Eric Heinze
Part III: Incitement to Religious Hatred and Related Topics
15. Blasphemy and Incitement to Religious Hatred: Free Speech Dogma and Doctrine, Ivan Hare
16. The Danish Cartoons, Offensive Expression, and Democratic Legitimacy, Ian Cram
17. Criminalizing Religiously Offensive Satire: Free Speech, Human Dignity, and Comparative Law, Amnon Reichman
Part IV: Religious Speech and Expressive Conduct That Offend Secular Values
18. Religious Speech that Undermines Gender Equality, Carolyn Evans
19. Homophobic Speech, Equality Denial, and Religious Expression, Ian Leigh
20. Extreme Religious Dress: Perspectives on Veiling Controversies, Dominic McGoldrick
21. Endorsing Discrimination between Faiths: A Case of Extreme Speech?, John Finnis
Part V: Incitement to and Glorification of Terrorism
22. Incitement to, and Glorification of, Terrorism, Eric Barendt
23. The Terrorism Act 2006: Discouraging Terrorism, Tufyal Choudhury
24. Radical Religious Speech: the Ingredients of a Binary World View, Sara Savage and Jose Liht
Part VI: Holocaust Denial
25. 'On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Nazi': Some Comparative Aspects of Holocaust Denial on the WWW, David Fraser
26. Expanding Holocaust Denial and Legislation Against It, Michael Whine
27. The Holocaust Denial Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Dieter Grimm
28. The Politics of Memory: Bans and Commemorations, Patrick Weil
Part VII: Governmental and Self-Regulation of the Media
29. Shouting Fire: From the Nanny State to the Heckler's Veto: The New Censorship and How to Counter It, David Edgar
30. Extreme Speech and American Press Freedoms, David J. Bodney
31. Extreme Speech and the Democratic Functions of the Mass Media, Jacob Rowbottom

Editorial Reviews

"What are the appropriate limits to freedom of expression in societies that wish to be democratic, multi-cultural, and committed to the human rights of all? Ivan Hare and James Weinstein have assembled a dazzling array of talent from a variety of disciplines, jurisdictions, and viewpoints to explain and debate a controversy that is intellectually complex, politically explosive, and as current as today's news. Extreme Speech and Democracy is a mine of information and argument that will be quarried for years to come. This is quite simply the most sophisticated, penetrating, and ambitious study of these issues available."
—Christopher McCrudden,
FBA, Professor of Human Rights Law, University of Oxford

"The papers in this book bring a penetrating scholarship to the law relating to extreme speech and to the political philosophy which is the subject's real challenge. Whether you believe in free expression warts and all, or in censorship for the sake of public tranquility, you will find these contributions a major intellectual resource."
—Lord Justice Laws,
High Court of Justice of England and Wales, Queen's Bench Division

"This is a book of the sort that you feared the internet might have driven off our bookshelves. It is compendious, thoughtful, learned and very well produced and laid out. The topic is both provocative and important, being no less than the future of our liberal culture and the task it faces in accommodating itself to the challenge of extremism without destroying all that is good about itself in the process. The thirty one contributors - an all-star, generally Anglo-American cast but with strong Continental and Canadian input from time to time, the whole presided over by the high priest of liberal values Ronald Dworkin (who contributes an excellent introduction) - generally rises to the challenge. The book is one to be read through from start to finish or enjoyed in bite-sized chunks grabbed as the opportunity arises. Almost all of it leaves the reader with much to savour."
— CONOR GEARTY (London School of Economics)

From the Publisher